"the canardly"

i got most of the work done on my "cutie", and then decided to take a breather to consider the hinge detail and other stuff

having been recently impressed by a build from "GrandadIsAnOldMan" on youtube, i felt the urge to take out one of the stash of capacitor powered paper dart kits i got some time ago from hobbyking, and make the depron hot rod equivalent of a paper dart

the a4 paper for the dart is 80gsm, meaning an a4 sheet is in at 5 grams, which was the target for the airframe; the motor and capacitor are in at 6.5 grams, making the designed paper dart all up weight at 11.5 grams

the finished plane weighs is at 11.9 - 12 grams all up, but has a far bigger wing area

the layout of the motor and capacitor made the most practical layout a canard, and i plagiarised plans from both the candice (a ray malmstrom rubber design from aeromodeller april '72 that i made back in the day), and the parlor pusher from model airplane news january 1959 lifted from outerzone

it all went together in an afternoon

the initial glides were crap, diving into the proverbial tall grass even with increased nose winglet incidence - hence the name, because it appeared that it "can 'ardly" fly

but the application of some reflex camber using a metal edge to crease some elevons, and then re-attaching the wing fins to hold in the "up" was immediately successful - it glides very flat in a slow right hand turn

the motor rotates clockwise from the rear, so torque should straighten out the climb some; there is maybe 3º downthrust built in to the motor mount by default as mounted, which again is probably appropriate for the design - if it turns out wrong, i can easily add more downthrust by shimming under the blenderm.... if it's too much as is, i can slot the rear, and wedge it up instead

anyway, pics below, with further info on the construction

if there's adequate power for good flights, i could envisage an sr-71 blackbird and the starship enterprise as natural evolutions

Everything comes full circle ( almost) , just like the RC planes of the 60’s where you pushed a button once for left, two for right , and if you got it back to the field in one piece it was a Great day …
It is however , very CUTE !!!
What about a bigger one with a real radio, and Throttle ?

thanks for the kind words - i expected that it would fly with the powerplant after i got the glide sorted out, but the thrust and duration expectations were somewhat of a mystery

as for plans... there weren't any when i made it, but as requested i will take the time to measure it up and post a rudimentary set with dimensions at the size it is, and you are welcome to scale it to whatever you desire

a bigger one would have adequate space to hide the rx / servos and esc in the rear wing "hump", and by deepening the rear fuselage aerodynamically between the under fins and making the fins a bit deeper (or extend them above the wing) if i was to try it, with an outrunner mounted on the rear thickness thus created

streamline the fore wing mount for your lipo, which would make it balance correctly, and away it goes

edit :
plan now uploaded - the graph paper is 5 mm square grid , but all useful dimensions are clearly marked - if you use those as inches you'll end up with a 30" version
forgot to add, the dihedral of the main wing is 4 (units) at each tip, while the fore plane is 2 (units) at each tip, or more simply 4 on one side with the other flat on the board

released under copyleft, so share it round if you want, under that arrangement

if you get up and running, please paste a link in this thread to any build log

for r/c, given the relative weight of motor and other requisite components, i'd suggest you leave the opportunity to make the nose longer, and trim it to an appropriate length for the battery you choose, so that there's no need for ballast - the nose moment is likely a bit short for balance unless you cluster the radio stuff ahead of the wing somehow, which would detract from the streamline

the front winglet is slightly lower on the right tip, as per the initial photo shoot

apart from the poor initial glide (solved with some reflex on the main plane), it just flew without adjustment, although the climb is rather straight, but the glide as power runs out is gentle right circles as per the video

there was a bit of breeze on the day, so the flight pattern hasn't been fully trimmed

it could probably do with a tiny bit less incidence on the foreplane, after i added the reflex as a better way to cure the dive it showed gliding

the video shows it gently stalls when gliding, but most of the powered flight is well behaved so i'll consider any changes after some testing flights here if the winds finally dissipate some, and report back in the thread

Images

we don't have dollar foam here, but i have discovered that depron will sometimes tear despite a sharp #11 blade

hold the blade so it is about 45 degrees to vertical as you cut, and if the material is thick, don't be intent on cutting all the way through on a single pass

also, the tear will usually be at the bottom surface of the sheet, so you might consider tring to "complete" the cut from the other side by turning the sheet over before you go all the way through - possible to accomplish by using the partial cut as a guide, and pushing the blade at 45 degrees, so it cuts "down" on the top surface if that makes sense

if the edge isn't perfect, you can sand it, but with very fine paper and in one direction only, not back and forth